The present invention is directed to an apparatus for reproducing images, more particularly to a compact image reproducing apparatus that prints images so as to minimize printing time and print material waste.
Digital photography is rapidly gaining in popularity, with original images captured both with digital cameras and with conventional cameras and film that is subsequently processed and digitally scanned. Photographic manufacturers have introduced photofinishing apparatus adapted to produce digitally printed images from unprocessed film, processed film, or various digital file inputs. Examples are the QD-21 minilab from Konica, the Frontier(trademark) Digital Lab System from Fuji Photo Film, and the QSST(trademark)-2711 from Noritsu Koki. However, all these systems produce prints on silver halide photographic paper, and they therefore require a wet chemical process to produce the color prints. Other systems are known that use processed film or digital files as inputs to produce photographic quality prints without silver halide paper and its accompanying wet process. For example, the Kodak Picture Maker produces thermal dye transfer prints, and the Canon Hyperphoto produces ink jet prints. Both these systems are suitable for a customer making a small number of reprints and enlargements from selected images, but they produce prints too slowly to be practical for standard, multi-image customer orders. The Canon Hyperphoto is further disadvantaged by its large footprint. There is a therefore a need for a compact image reproduction apparatus that can rapidly produce high-quality prints without requiring a wet paper process.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,902 of Nardone et al. (Atlantek) describes a thermal dye transfer printer configured to print on continuous roll media and sever individual prints while minimizing media waste. The printer of this invention is incapable of printing speeds needed for rapidly fulfilling a multi-image customer order.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,675 of E. A. Estabrooks (Intermec) describes an on-demand narrow web electrophotographic printer for printing tickets, labels, etc. with low material waste. The invention is focused on intermittent, on-demand printing of tickets and labels, and as such it does not recognize or address the challenges of rapidly printing a plurality of images associated with one or more customer orders.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,831 of R. Grenda generally describes high speed printing using an array of low speed printers and specifically describes various means for collating pages of a single job distributed to multiple printers. In this reference, the printing of individual pages is staggered so that they arrive at the collator in the correct order. Each image is produced on a single page, leading to waste or complexity or both when printing images of differing dimensions. Also, in practice, it is very difficult to calibrate multiple printers to produce uniformly accurate color balance and tone scale. Thus, the color characteristics of a customer""s prints produced by such a system would be variable and objectionable.
A printer capable of increasing printing resolution is described in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/188,574 of A. Lubinsky, filed Nov. 9, 1998. In one embodiment, the printer prints on a section of media that remains part of a continuous roll. This approach suffers the potential disadvantage of smearing the freshly-printed image or transferring ink to the backside of media contacted by the image as it is rolled up after printing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,794 of J. C. DeMarti, Jr. et al. (Eastman Kodak) describes a photofinishing method in which rolls of films are developed in batches and printed in different batches. For a given roll of film, images are printed in capture order. This reference fails to recognize, let alone solve, the problems associated with low-waste printing of a collection of individual images having different dimensions.
There remains a need for a compact image reproduction apparatus with a dry or apparently-dry digital printer capable of rapidly producing high quality photographic images with low waste.
It is an object of the present invention to rapidly produce printed images without using the wet chemical processes associated with silver halide print media.
It is a further object of the invention to produced printed images with minimal waste of the print media.
It is a further object of the invention to minimize the time required to produce a customer order comprising a plurality of printed images.
It is a further object of the invention to complete multiple pending customer orders in minimum time.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for printing a plurality of images on a media provided on a supply roll, the media having a predetermined width, comprising:
a scanning print head movable along a predetermined linear path of a first direction, the linear path having a maximum predetermined length;
a transport mechanism for moving the media along a transport so that images can be printed by the scanning print head on the media that is payed out from the supply roll, the transport path being substantially parallel to the linear path; and
a computer for analyzing a plurality of digital images with respect to the size and/or shape of the images to be printed and organizing the digital images in a printing sequence and format which determines the length of the media to be payed out for printing from the supply roll so as to provide for the efficient use of the media and efficient use of printing time.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for printing a plurality of digital images on a media segment having a variable calculated length, comprising:
a printer for printing a digital image at a print gate;
a transport mechanism for moving the media segment a variable calculated length past the print gate so that the print head can print images on the media segment; and
a computer for analyzing the customer image order and organizing the plurality images in a printing sequence defining at least one batch of images for placement on the media segment of a variable calculated length and for determining the variable calculated length taking in to consideration the number of images in the customer image order, the maximum length of the platen, and the size of the images to be printed.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of printing a plurality of images using a sheet of the media of a variable calculated length, comprising the steps of:
a) obtaining a customer image order having a plurality of digital images, each of the digital images having an associated print size; and
b) analyzing the customer image order and organizing the plurality images in a printing sequence defining at least one batch of images for placement on the media segment of a variable calculated length and for determining the variable calculated length taking in to consideration the number of images in the customer image order, the maximum length of the platen, and the size of the images to be printed.
In another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of printing a plurality of images using a media segment, comprising the steps of:
a) obtaining a first customer image order and a second customer image order each having a plurality of digital images, each of the digital images having an associated print size; and
b) analyzing the images with respect to the predetermined size so as to determine a printing sequence and format for efficient use of the cut media segment for printing of the digital images.
In accordance with yet still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer program thereon which when loaded onto a computer will cause the computer to perform the following steps:
a) obtaining a customer image order having a plurality of digital images, each of the digital images having a selected print size; and
b) analyzing the selected print sizes of the images with respect to the predetermined size so as to determine a printing sequence and format on the media segment.